The importance of feedback

Are you a better-than-average driver? Chances are you will think so. Studies show that almost everyone thinks they are more skilled behind the wheel than almost everyone else.

It seems most of us aren’t too good at judging our own behaviour.

It’s one thing to overrate our driving ability, but it’s quite another when it comes to leadership. Research by two Australian business academics found that “the worst team leaders often rate themselves the most highly”

It’s easy to recognise the flaws in others, but can you see your own faults? And if you can, just how bad do you think your incompetence is?

Apparently, most of us suffer from a kind of ego-saving delusion that renders us hopelessly poor at recognising our own incompetence.

But, I am perfect—at least I “think” so

People who are incompetent will tend to rate their own performance at a task only slightly lower than their more competent peers.

A study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, helps us understand why we think we are better than we really are. The researchers say we are bad at judging our own ability because, by definition, we're ignorant of what we don't know, or solutions we could have found.

They tested hundreds of students on various tasks, including a word game (Boggle), spotting an artist's name embedded in his paintings (visual search), and finding grammatical errors in a passage of text.

After completing a task, participants were asked to evaluate their performance twice - first based on the solutions/mistakes they knew they had identified, and then again after they'd been told about all the solutions/mistakes they had missed.

As the researchers predicted, they found the participants' self-evaluations were far more accurate after they were given the extra information about the answers that they had missed.

This phenomenon will be even more relevant when it comes to the less defined problems of real life, the researchers argued.

Useful Resources

For tips on seeking and giving feedback see our Tool “Developing a culture of feedback”

Deluded leaders

Research suggests that not all leaders are aware of, or comfortable about facing, their shortcomings. Mostly our shortcomings are blind spots—you can’t see them, even though they can seriously affect a business, its people and performance.

Hence, the importance of gauging feedback. But, often the feedback can be brutal.

The first time many leaders find out about their blind spots is through performance reviews, 360-degree feedback and various forms of psychometric testing. But not all businesses have enough time, commitment or faith in these processes, so the blind spots are revealed and discussed only when they start to cause serious damage, if they are discussed at all.

You may be aware of the saying “prevention is better than the cure”. As a leader seeking feedback from peers, colleagues, staff and through external sources such as a coach or a mentor, are techniques you can use to ensure you lessen the chance of needing the “cure”!

Find out more

Please contact contact Michael at AttitudeWorks if you have any questions or want to find out more about feedback.